I read an article, The Secret Sharer, by Jane Mayer in the May 23 issue of The New Yorker that has gotten a lot of attention. (1) It is about the escalating prosecution of whistle-blowers by the Obama Administration. Although when he took office in 2009, President Obama “championed the cause of government transparency and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers,” his administration has “pursued leak prosecutions with a surprising relentlessness.” Gabriel Schoenfeld, a conservative political scientist, is quoted in the article: “Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.”
The Secret Sharer is specifically about the alleged misdeeds of former government employee, Thomas Drake — a quote from whom will get me to the astrological content of this blog. After acknowledging his dashed hopes about Obama, who he had expected “to roll back the prosecutions launched by the Bush Administration,” Drake says, “…. power is incredibly destructive. It’s a weird, pathological thing. I also think the intelligence community co-opted Obama, because he’s rather naïve about national security. He’s accepted the fear and secrecy. We’re in a scary space in this country.”
I’m thinking now simply about the ongoing disappointment of Obama supporters as a signature of the Sun square Neptune in his natal horoscope. In its problematic characteristics, Sun with Neptune can suggest someone who is easily influenced by others, who has influence over others, or is susceptible to both glamour and flattery.
The U.S. Sibly horoscope has Mars at 21º Gemini in the 7th house, square an elevated (closest to the 10th-house cusp) Neptune at 22º Virgo, sign of its detriment. As a nation, we have a collective storyline that includes both nebulous (or ill-defined) actions or motivations, and a susceptibility to propaganda or seduction, side-by-side with a guileless belief in altruistic action.
What a perfect fit for the country, as President Obama’s natal Mars at 22º Virgo is exactly conjunct the country’s Neptune.
(President Obama also has the natal Sun-Neptune midpoint at 25º34’ Virgo, with Mars at 22º34’ Virgo. It’s a three-degree orb, which is larger than I usually use, but with a larger than life character, perhaps a wider orb can be allowed.)
Although I can’t remember the details, in his book, Political Astrology, Michael O’Reilly made the observation that since the advent of televised campaigning, the candidate who wins the presidential election has a prominent Neptune in the radix. Neptune, of course, rules the media, and the “winner” has to play well on the television. This perhaps suggests that the “dark side” of Neptune, (i.e., weak but glamorous, etc.) has become a stronger feature in presidential politics.
The nation has had the transit of Neptune over the U.S. Moon. (The transit was precise from March 2010 through January 2011. In November, at the direct station, Neptune is at 28º 08’ Aquarius and the U.S. Moon is at 27º10’, less than a degree apart). The Moon governs the people, the populace. As a nation, we have been “under the influence,” have been beguiled and beguiling, seduced and seductive, for the promise and hope of Neptune in all of its possibilities.
I’m finishing this on Monday morning with the Moon at 27º Aquarius, a lunar return in the Sibly chart. I wanted to close this blog with the positive, altruistic note of Neptune, and a nice synchronicity is showing up to assist with that.
I opened an email about the talk that Van Jones (of The American Dream Movement) gave this weekend at Netroots Nation. According to the Truthout email, Jones “channeled the disappointment and the heartbreak so many on the left have been feeling, and laid out the dream of a truly different future – one we can build together.”
Van Jones is a Virgo, with Uranus and Pluto on either side of the Sun. (3) There is no birth time; this is a sunrise chart.
Pluto, considered in modern astrology to be the “higher octave” of Mars, is at 22º51′ Virgo conjunct the U.S. Neptune — a telling signature of a call to disrupt the complacency and confusion of status quo Neptune and reawaken an authentic and vivid compassion for the common good.
Footnotes:
(1) All quotes from: The Secret Sharer
(3) Sunrise chart: Van Jones, September 20, 1968, Jackson, TN. Source: Wikipedia